Businesses and other entities often use planning and order entry applications to organize the production, storage, and shipping of manufactured products. For example, a manufacturing business may employ a planning application to organize the production of various orders from customers long before the workers or machines on the manufacturing floor are scheduled to start production. Such planning applications may be used in the early planning stages of the production process, and workers or machines in the manufacturing environment are then obligated to review and implement the production schedule developed by the planning application.
Some conventional planning applications may not provide a suitable transition between the conceptual world of the early planning stages and the reality of the manufacturing floor or other work environment. In certain circumstances, people working in a production environment (e.g., line operators, shift leaders, supervisors, quality inspection staff, plant maintenance staff, or the like) may be required to review hardcopies of the production orders, shipping schedules, and other documents or transactions from the planning application so as to prepare a separate list of the work items that should to be performed by individual workers or machines that particular day, work shift, or week. Frequently, the production orders, shipping schedules, and other documents or transactions from the planning application include large amounts of information not relevant to the individual work items or a worker or machine on a particular day. For example, the plant manager or shift leader in a production environment may be obligated to break down a hardcopy of a production order based upon the resources available in the production environment that day, work shift, or week to determine which work items (e.g., replenish supply hopper 1, repair jam in production line 5, confirm production of 2000 parts from line 8, perform schedule cleaning of machine A, pull product samples production line 12 for quality testing, etc.) should be performed on a particular day, work shift, or week in furtherance of completing the overall production order.
After identifying the work items that should to be performed on a particular day, work shift, or week by individual workers or machines in a production environment, these work items may be assigned directly to an individual worker or machine. In such circumstances, advance notice of which workers or machines will be available and functional on that particular day may be required before the work item can be assigned. Further, such a system for assigning work items directly to particular workers or machines may prevent or otherwise hinder real-time prioritization and assignment of work items in response to exceptional circumstances (e.g., a production line failure, supply material shortages, worker illness or absences, etc.) that may require shifting or reassigning responsibilities in a dynamic or near-time environment.